VacationSelector
The Georgia State Capitol, Atlanta
AtlantaThe Georgia State Capitol
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city

Photos: Atlanta by DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Atlanta or Cartagena?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Atlanta for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Atlanta’s own page.

Choose Cartagena for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Cartagena’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Atlanta 10, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Atlanta 68, Cartagena 62: Atlanta leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Atlanta 55, Cartagena 68: Cartagena leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Atlanta 65, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Atlanta 60, Cartagena 46: Atlanta leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Atlanta 52, Cartagena 33: Atlanta leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Atlanta 70, Cartagena 40: Atlanta leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Atlanta 28, Cartagena 54: Cartagena leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Atlanta 50, Cartagena 48: Atlanta leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Atlanta 40, Cartagena 60: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Atlanta 62, Cartagena 40: Atlanta leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Atlanta 33, Cartagena 40: Cartagena leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Atlanta and Cartagena.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Atlanta
49match

Wins on families and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Atlanta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
120 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Cartagena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
124 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AtlantaCartagena

Where the figures come from

Atlanta has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Atlanta: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Atlanta / Carroll Heights (12.5 km from centre). Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAtlantaCartagena
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation225 m2 m
Main airportHartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)14 km from centre238 non-stop destinationsRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureAtlantaCartagena
City population498,715914,552
People per km²1,4331,599
Museums within 10 km272
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Atlanta or Cartagena somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.